African-American dance

- updated 2019/09/03 23:52

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African-American dance has developed within Black American communities in everyday spaces, rather than in studios, schools or companies.[1] These dances are usually centered on folk and social dance practice, though performance dance often supplies complementary aspects to this. Placing great value on improvisation, these dances are characterized by ongoing change and development. There are a number of notable African-American modern dancecompanies using African-American cultural dance as an inspiration, among these are the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and Lula Washington Dance Theatre. Unlike European-American dance, African-American dance was not taxed in the fields of Europe where it began and has not been presented in theatrical productions by generations of kings, tzars, and states. Instead, it lost its best dancers to the draft and started requiring taxes from establishments in the form of a federal excise tax on dance halls enacted in 1944. Dance halls continue to be taxed throughout the country while dance studios are not, and African-American dance companies statistically receive less taxpayer money than European Americans. However, Hollywood and Broadway have provided opportunities for African-American artists to share their work and for the public to support them. Michael Jackson and Beyoncé are among the most well-known African-American dancers.

History

The Greater Chesapeake area encompassing Virginia, Maryland, and much of North Carolina was the earliest and perhaps most influential location of the black-white cultural interchange that produced "African-American" dance.[2]:19 Captive Africans from numerous societies in several African regions began pouring into the area as slaves from the late 17th to the late 18th centuries. Given their cultural heterogeneity, including music and dance, they mostly likely learned to dance together by drawing on the "grammar of culture" shared across much of Western and Central Africa.[2]:21 Something like a regional Chesapeake tradition, a thing entirely novel in European eyes, arose perhaps not long before the 18th century had become the 19th.[2]:21 Within one or two generations of establishing these creolized African forms, or perhaps simultaneously, elements of European dances were added.[2]:22
"Competitive individuality and [probably] improvisation" were also Choreographic Elements of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century West African Dance" that were continued in this region.[3]

History of dance for black people begins in Thompson's book [4] where she talks about slave masters forcing slaves to sing and dance as a form of entertainment as they continue to work throughout the evening. The evolution of black dance thus emphasizes black dance as a true form of release from that history and reclaiming dance as something that is theirs and not someone else's.

Based on the limited pictorial record, the typical African practice of bending emphatically at the waist and hips gave way to a more upright, European like style. This may have reflected the African practice of carrying heavy loads on the head, which requires a strong, balancing spine.[2]:22 Black dancing continued strong preferences of other African characteristics such as angularity and asymmetry of body positions, multiple body rhythms or polyrhythms, and a low center of gravity.[2]:23

Jig, Clog, and Break Down Dancing have been attributed to African Americans, although this is disputed.[5][6] A visitor to the southern United States wrote that "Hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys, and reels Put life and mettle into their heels...No restraint of the etiquettish ball-room...What luxury of motion... This is dancing. It knocks the spangles out of the ball-room."
[7]

New York City and the Harlem Renaissance

Just as the Harlem Renaissance saw the development of art, poetry, literature and theater in Harlem during the early 20th century, it also saw the development of a rich musical and dance life: clubs (Cotton Club), ballrooms (Savoy Ballroom), the home rent party and other black spaces as the birthplaces of new dances, theaters and the shift from vaudeville to local "shows" written and choreographed by African-American artists; theatres as public forums for popularizing African-American cultural dances.

Performance, competition and social dance

Milwaukee United Steppers giving a glimpse of Milwaukee Style stepping and bopping

Competition has long played an important role in social dance in African and African-American social dance, from the "battles"' of hip hop and lindy hop to the cakewalk. Performances have also been integrated into everyday dance life, from the relationship between performance and social dancing in tap dancing to the "shows" held at Harlem ball rooms in the 1930s.

Social dance spaces

Competitive dance

Tradition

In most African-American dance cultures, learning to dance does not happen in formal classrooms or dance studios. Children often learn to dance as they grow up, developing not only a body awareness but also aesthetics of dance which are particular to their community. Learning to dance - learning about rhythmic movement - happens in much the same way as developing a local language 'accent' or a particular set of social values.
Children learn specific dance steps or 'how to dance' from their families - most often from older brothers and sisters, cousins or other older children. Because cultural dance happens in everyday spaces, children often dance with older members of the community around their homes and neighborhoods, at parties and dances, on special occasions, or whenever groups of people gather to 'have a good time'. Cultural dance traditions are therefore often cross-generational traditions, with younger dancers often 'reviving' dances from previous generations, albeit with new 'cool' variations and 'styling'. This is not to suggest that there are no social limitations on who may dance with whom and when. Dance partners (or people to dance with) are chosen by a range of social factors, including age, sex, kinship, interest and so on. The most common dance groups are often comprised by people of a similar age, background and often sex (though this is a varying factor).

Cultural expression

Lee Ellen Friedland and other authors argue that to talk about cultural dancing without talking about music or art or drama is like talking about fish without talking about water. Music and dance are intimately related in African-American cultural dance, not only as accompaniments, but as intertwined creative processes.[9]

"African American Cultural Dance" was a description coined by National Dance Association author and researcher Frank R. Ross, who correctly replaced the old stereotyped "vernacular" (native or natural) definition of African-American dance with its correct definition as "cultural." (Sanctioned by The National Dance Association and International Dance Council - UNESCO).[1]

Some of the popular African-American dances of today are the Detroit Ballroom and Social - Chicago Steppin & Walking, D.C. Baltimore, Cleveland Hand Dance, Calypso & The NAACP Sanctioned Grand March – National Black Wedding & Reunion Dance. Popular black dance organizations are perfectly paired Gentlemen of Ballroom of Cleveland Master Dancers of Akron, OH. Dance Fusion, World Class-Detroit, Majestic Gents - Chicago Smooth & Easy D.C. Tri - State - Love to dance - Sugarfoot of Baltimore, MD. The new American dance art form of African-American cultural dance and music was accepted into the New York City Schools dance education curriculum.

Jacqui Malone describes the relationships between tap dancers who traveled with bands in the early 20th century, describing the way tap dancers worked with the musicians to create new rhythms. Much has been written about the relationship between improvisation in jazz and improvisation in jazz dance - the two are linked by their emphasis on improvisation and creative additions to compositions while they are in process - choreography and composition on the spot, in a social context - rather than a strict division between 'creation' and 'performance', as in the Europeanmiddle classballet and operatic tradition. African Dance is supposed to be about a person getting connected to the ground and telling their story and struggles using dance. It also allows people to feel the vibrations of their dance beneath their feet, allowing them to dance how they please, utilizing the space that they have so they can express themselves freely.

It is equally important to talk about the relationship between DJs MCs, b-boys and b-girls and graffiti artists in hip hop culture, and John F. Szwed and Morton Marks have discussed the development of jazz and jazz dance in America from European set dances and dance suites in relation to the development of musical artisanship.

^Irish Jig and clogging were both in existence when, in the 1840s in the Five Points area of New York, occupied in part by many Irish, William Henry Lane, aka Masta Juba, combined the shuffle with the Irish jig, a style called a break-down, attracting attention from Charles Dickens who visited Charles Almakck, later called Pete Williams' place, a black American dance hall.